A typical local retail pharmacy fills thousands of prescription orders per week. Moreover, as the general population ages and new beneficial drugs are introduced, prescription order volumes to be filled at retail pharmacies are expected to double within the next few years. This present and expected increase in order volume places enormous pressure on pharmacists and other pharmacy workers, who strive to fill each order efficiently, accurately and quickly.
Most customers have a limited view of how a typical retail pharmacy works. They often think that when they present a written prescription order to a local retail pharmacy, such as at their corner drugstore, a pharmacist will personally greet them, review their order, complete and file the necessary paperwork required by applicable laws, fill the prescription order, and present the filled order to the customer, all within a few minutes. However, in addition to increasing volume, the traditional retail pharmacist is now faced with a large variety of additional tasks, including obtaining proper insurance payment authorization, and in some cases verifying the refillabilty of a particular prescription order. Moreover, orders may now enter the pharmacy through a wide variety of mediums, such as via facsimile, phone call, and e-mail.
In light of the increasing demands and obligations placed on retail pharmacies, they are evolving into more efficient organizations having numerous employees performing individual tasks associated with filling each prescription order. For example, when a customer presents a prescription to the pharmacy, a clerk may take the prescription order and enter it into a computer system that verifies insurance information. If approved, he or she may then prepare a prescription label to be placed on the package that will ultimately contain the prescribed drug. The clerk may then present the prescription order and label to a technician, usually stationed at another location within the pharmacy, who will physically fill the prescription by placing the appropriate quantity of the prescribed drug within the bottle and attach the label. Pursuant to applicable laws, a registered pharmacist then reviews the technician's work, and approves the dispersal of the completed prescription order to the customer. A clerk may then place the filled prescription in a storage area to await customer pick-up. Upon customer pick-up, the clerk files the written prescription order and any other appropriate paperwork related to the transaction, such as signed insurance forms and any informed consent paperwork. This type of system allows the pharmacy to quickly, efficiently, and economically fill numerous prescription orders.
Given the high volume of prescription orders being filled, the large number of people performing individual tasks associated with filling each prescription order, and the numerous locations within the pharmacy that a prescription order can be positioned as it is being filled, it is important that the prescription order, and ultimately the filled prescription, be easily located throughout the process. For example, if a particular prescription order is denied payment by insurance, a clerk may hold the prescription order aside while the customer is contacted. If the customer presents himself to another clerk at the pick-up window, while the first clerk is attempting to call the customer at home, the second clerk often has no way of knowing the current status of the prescription order, or where it is in the order filling process. Accordingly, the second clerk is forced to search each location within the pharmacy. Similarly, should a prescription order be inadvertently misplaced within the pharmacy, it is often difficult to find, thereby needlessly delaying the filling process and wasting worker time to locate it.
Some pharmacy vendors have attempted to overcome these problems by offering systems that manually track prescription orders within a pharmacy. In particular, they require the worker at a given station to manually enter into a computer the fact that they have received a particular prescription order at that particular location. Some of these systems also require the pharmacy support worker to manually enter into the computer the fact that the prescription order has left their station, or to identify the new station where they delivered the prescription order.
However, such manual tracking systems require considerable pharmacy support worker time and attentiveness to be used effectively. For example, if it takes a worker 20-60 seconds to manually enter the location of each prescription order that arrives at a particular worker's station, and that station typically handles 3000-6000 prescription orders per week, then 25-50 hours per week per station would be spent entering this information. If there are numerous stations within the pharmacy, the total time spent within the pharmacy manually entering such information could easily exceed several hundred hours per week. Moreover, should a worker fail to enter the location of a particular prescription order, any attempt to locate that prescription order using the available location information will lead a worker to only the last known location of the prescription order. Accordingly, an inefficient manual tracking of the prescription order would still be required, rendering the manual location device useless.
Similarly, some pharmacy vendors have attempted to automate the prescription filling aspect of a pharmacy by incorporating an automatic assembly line process for filling prescription orders. In particular, an operator enters a prescription order into a computer system, which causes a conveyor-type system to deliver an empty vial to an automated drug dispenser. The filled vial is then automatically matched with a label and presented to a pharmacist for final review and approval. While these types of devices facilitate the quick and efficient filling of prescription orders, they are expensive for use in a retail pharmacy environment, and they occupy a large amount of limited space within the pharmacy. Moreover, they still require pharmacy workers to perform manual tasks such as verifying insurance and renewability of the prescription, and processing the various forms of prescription orders before and after they are entered into the automated system. Accordingly, they do not permit the easy tracking of prescription orders as they travel within the automated pharmacy environment.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems with known prescription order tracking systems. It is an economical and automatic prescription order tracking system that monitors and tracks prescription orders through a retail pharmacy. Preferably, a tracking tag having a unique identifier associated with it, is attached to the prescription order, which could be a written prescription form 44 (FIG. 6B), a prescription label 42 (FIG. 6A), or any other tangible medium documenting a request for prescription by a health care provider. Tag reading devices are positioned at key locations throughout the retail pharmacy to detect the location of each tag, and its associated attached prescription order. The detected locations are compiled via a computer system and associated with the customer, such that at any given time the location of the prescription order within the retail pharmacy can be quickly and easily determined.
Filled prescription orders can be placed in a large bin having multiple cubby holes within it. Each cubby hole has a displayed number and a tag reading device received therein. When a pharmacy worker places a filled prescription and the prescription order having the tag attached into an available cubby, the tag reading device within that selected cubby detects the location of that prescription and paperwork and reports that location to the computer system. Accordingly, when a customer arrives to pick-up their prescription, a pharmacy worker need only enter the customer's identifying information into the computer system and the number of the specific cubby containing the filled prescription and prescription order can be located.
In one preferred embodiment, the tags are unique bar codes, and the tag reading devices are bar code scanners positioned throughout the retail pharmacy. In an alternative preferred embodiment, the tags are electromagnetic antenna and the like, and the tag readers are limited range transponders and the like as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,057,756 to Engellenner, that automatically detect the location of the attached prescription order as it enters and leaves predetermined locations within throughout the pharmacy. The tag readers can be fixed at the particular locations, or portable (i.e. handheld) to facilitate scanning of prescription orders that are compiled in bulk.
The tags themselves can be either rigidly or detachably secured to the prescription order. For example, the tags can be directly secured to the prescription with adhesive or secured within a prescription lid. Also, the tags can be secured to a fastener, such as a paperclip, that is detachably secured to the prescription order. Alternatively, the tag can be rigidly secured to a carrier, such as a basket, and the prescription order and materials related to filling the prescription can be placed in the same carrier throughout the prescription filling process.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.